BOXING: New Haven's Elvin Ayala gets new opponent for Friday night

Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A younger Elvin Ayala might have been unnerved by the sudden and considerable upgrade he faces in Friday night's WBC U.S. National Boxing Council middleweight title co-feature Friday at Mohegan Sun.

Ayala, dubbed as "the Pride of New Haven," went to bed Monday night having prepared for two months for Israel "Pito" Cardona, a once-competent journeyman from Hartford whose skills have steadily declined over the last four years.

On Tuesday, however, he discovered that Cardona was not medically cleared, causing his team to scramble for a new opponent.

As coincidence would have it, Derrick "Superman" Findley, a younger, stronger, better middleweight who fought WBA Super World super middleweight champ Andre Ward to the bell (six rounds) in late 2006; who fought NABF middleweight champ Fernando Guerrero to the finish (10 rounds) in February of this year; and who fought unbeaten Matt Korobov to the bell (eight rounds) in 2010, was, himself, suddenly available.

Findley was scheduled to fight one-time middleweight contender Antwun Echols Saturday in Indiana, but that fight fell through as well.

Findley, a 27-year-old middleweight from Gary, Ind., is 18-5 with 11 knockouts in his career, but here's the thing about his five losses. Every one of them was against a fighter who was unbeaten when Findley stepped into the ring. His other loss of note was to 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Andre Dirrell, who stopped Findley in six rounds of a scheduled 10-rounder in 2009.

The 30-year-old Ayala, who lost to Arthur Abraham for the IBF middleweight title in Germany in 2009, knows the competition instantly got tougher with Findley. But having already fought elite international fights, he won't be awed by the boxing spotlight. Plus, he knows the upside can be an enormous boost to his career. A win over Findley not only gets him a decent national belt, but it legitimizes his return to world contention after stumbling in cross-road fights against Lajuan Simon and David Lemieux during an eight-month period between late 2009 and mid-2010.

Ayala, 23-5, doesn't know much about Findley, other than what people have told him in the last 48 hours, but conceded that it feels much more like a title-caliber fight now than it did against Cardona. "I'm not taking anything away from Cardona, but it was almost like it was too good to be true ... fighting for the WBC USNBC title," said Ayala. "For a title shot, I should be fighting quality opponents. How can I call myself a champion if I can't beat a person like (Findley). This is the fight that will show I am a championship-caliber fighter."

Ayala has purposely avoided cramming in last-minute homework on Findley, saying "what am I going to do, rush a bunch of information into my brain? I don't want to be all, 'Oh, my god.' The bottom line is I've trained hard, I'm in the best shape to fight now and my fighting style should be able to adapt and conquer my opponents. He goes by the name of Superman, so I'm going in there with the Kryptonite style."

While the degree of difficulty multiplied with the insertion of Findley, a victory would be an instant shot of credibility for Ayala's career.

"This definitely would boost my confidence, and it would also show a lot of people who believe in me ... but ... hope I win instead of (knowing it), you know what I mean?" said the popular fighter, who credits his resurgence to new trainer Peter Manfredo Sr., manager Massimo Liguori of Branford, and the support of Studio Brow, also of Branford. "After this win, it'll be different. Not only for me, but for everybody."

Friday night's main event features Dorchester, Mass., veteran Kevin McBride (35-9-1), the last man to knock out Mike Tyson, against unbeaten Polish heavyweight Mariusz Wach (24-0) in a 12-round bout for the vacant WBC International heavyweight title.

Tickets are priced at $40, $65, and $105 and can be purchased through CES Boxing at 401-724-2253 (cesboxing.com), Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 (ticketmaster.com), or the Mohegan Sun box office. The first bout is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. The card will also be available on Pay-Per-View through fight-stream.com for $9.99.